Another Life
by AdulterousWhore
Summary: My take on "we should get coffee". Possible spoilers for season 6.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Hey guys!! I realise i've been away for a ridiculous amount of time ... i've been stupidly busy with uni and work!!! This idea came to me after watching season 6 so far ... like many of you, i think we'll definitely be seeing Juliet in the flash-sideways. I hope you like this new story ... this is only a little teaser, so if you like what you read, review and i'll continue it :)

It was just like any other day. She stares, lost, out of the window, watching the clouds roll by so slowly if she wasn't concentrating Juliet would swear they were fixed into the sky. She wishes she was in Miami with Rachel, and sighs silently ... yep, it was definitely just like any other day.

"Juliet?" Ethan's voice snaps her out of her trace.

"Yeah?"

"Could you to watch over the woman in room 23 for me?"

"Sure, of course," she smiles, never to turn somebody down. She moves down the corridor, hating the once white walls which make her feel claustrophobic. Juliet glances down at her feet, a habit she's only done since she got here, and knocks right into a dark haired beauty she does not recognize. "I'm sorry," she breathes, brushing the woman's arm for fear she nearly knocked her right off her feet.

"No, I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," her green eyes flick quickly around her, and Juliet feels a slight tension build. The woman smiles a small smile, and hurries away. Juliet keeps her eyes fixed on the woman's back for a brief second before closing the distance between where she stands and the door to room 23.

She enters it quietly, feeling her lips twitch upwards at the woman who seems exhausted, and sneaks over to the bed, all the while being careful not to make a sound as she looks at her chart.

"What happened to the other doctor?" Juliet's eyes shoot up in surprise.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. Dr Goodspeed's been called away ... he asked me to come and just give you another exam. My name's Dr Carlson ... It's nice to meet you Claire."


	2. Chapter One

**A/N:** Here's the proper first chapter to this 'flash-sideways' fic :), the prologue before hand was of course just a teaser and to let you all know that Juliet, in this fic anyway, will be very much involved in the flash sideways. I doubt this will match up to what happens in season 6 as we go along, so i guess it's AU. I hope you like the chapter!!

****

He is exhausted. There's no other word for it. He yawns, for what seems like the millionth time that morning, before finally giving up and dropping the files in his hand. He leans back in his leather chair and rubs his face.

"I warned you jet lag would catch up," he hears Miles' voice from the door and drops his hands, throwing the Asian a filthy look before letting out a heavy sigh.

"What do you want, Zulu?"

"Zulu was Japanese, wiseass. I think I got a lead on Cooper," his words caught James' attention.

"Can it, Enos, you're last 'lead' sent me all the way to Sydney and back and there was nothin' in it, what the hell makes you think you got somethin' solid now?"

"Because I finally found the file on his son," Miles says smugly, enjoying the look which etched across James' face as he jumped up to snatch the papers from Miles' hand. "A guy named John Locke. You're in luck too, because he lives right here in L.A."

"Where the hell did you find these?!"

"Jerry found them. I'm guessing Reed and Mason ditched everything they had on the guy after he swore he knew nothing about Cooper, but then a few days after they'd paid him a visit, Locke was thrown out of a window eight stories up."

"You think it was Cooper?"

Miles shakes his head in uncertainty. "Who knows? It's worth checking though, right?"

James sighs. "I'm gonna kill Reed next time I see the jammy bastard," Miles' snorts, "I'm serious! How, with all that is good and holy did they manage to throw out everything they had on Locke?"

"They're based in California, how the hell do you think?"

Just under an hour later, James Ford found himself sitting in his car outside a town centre. "So you reckon we should go to his house or just come back tomorrow?"

James thought about Miles' question for a moment, and how strange it had been that when they had reached the box company John Locke worked at, they had been told he was on vacation to Australia until tomorrow. _Small world, _he had thought. "We'll come back tomorrow. I hate to admit it, but I think you mighta been right about my jetlag."

"Told ya',"Miles' replied with a smug smile spreading across his face.

"Shut up," James snapped, getting out of the car. "I'm goin' to get a coffee."

"Get me one!" Miles' shouted as he slammed the car door shut.

-

Juliet clutched her purse closer to her chest as people pushed passed her in the crammed coffee shop she liked in town. It had been a long morning, but the thought of visiting Rachel in Miami in just a few short days was enough to keep Juliet smiling. Her thoughts of the white beaches and blue sea were interrupted when somebody knocked straight into her back, causing her to drop her purse.

"I'm sorry, 'cuse me," said a strong southern drawl, and her hand met his as they both reached the fetch the purse. She pulled back slowly as she met his gaze when Juliet was suddenly hit with a sharp pain in her head. She frowned, closing her eyes for a second, and then it was gone. She smiled up at the hansom stranger.

"Don't worry about it," she smiled, pushing her straight blonde locks our of her face.

"Is this place always this rammed?" He asked, looking around at each individual going about their busy lives.

Juliet shrugged, "small price to pay for good coffee, I guess." He caught her eye and smiled sweetly, his dimples showing, and a strong sense of familiarity fell upon her chest. She faltered, and he saw.

"What?" He frowned, curiously, and she found herself shaking her head before stuttering out an answer.

"N-no, I mean, nothing ... it's just," her weight fell back on one leg as she searched her memory. "You just look really familiar."

Her words caught him off guard. He had just been thinking the exact same thing ... he knew her, of course he knew her. But how? And if he _did_ know her, how on earth had he not thought about those eyes every day since they'd met? He shook his head, looking down towards his feet, and then once again meeting the blue which reminded him of the ocean. "Funny ... I was just thinking the exact same thing about you."

They stared, curiously and wearily, not daring to speak or move as they tried to focus on the déjà vu. He couldn't explain why looking at her felt like home; he couldn't explain the longing to run his fingers through her golden mane; he couldn't explain how he knew her coffee would have one sugar and the most pointless drop of milk; he couldn't explain how he knew she wouldn't drink the coffee unless said pointless milk drop was in there.

"NEXT!"

An annoyed voice pulled Juliet out of her trance, and she stared around. The harassed looking woman serving behind the counter looked pissed off, and Juliet only then realised it was because her little staring game with the shaggy haired stranger had held up the line. She blushed and moved forward to the counter.

"You know ... if you wanted, we could go for dinner somewhere tonight, or tomorrow? That way we can stare at each other all we wanna without holdin' up a bunch load of pissy people who don't really know what real stress is," he said slowly. She looked at him, opened her mouth to answer before being stopped by a rather rude "Ahem!" by the sales woman.

"I'll have one regular coffee please ... one sugar, and only a very tiny drop of milk." James stared at her. _This is really freaky,_ he thought, before moving to her left and right up by the counter.

"Well?"

"What?"

"Dinner?"

She nodded, trying to ignore the headache which had suddenly sprang back. The pain, which shot from one temple to the other, was almost enough to make her scream out. "I'd love to, but I'm catching a flight to Miami at 5AM the next day," were the only words she could manage before having to grip the edge of the counter.

"Oh ... how long are you away for?"

"2 weeks, it's my sisters birthday," bang, the pain, "but I rarely see her or my nephew now I work here so I like to stay as long as I can when I go ..." she said slowly, concentrating on nothing but breathing and making herself focus on his eyes. Strangely enough, his green-blue eyes seemed to ease the pulse in her mind.

"Oh ... well never mind then," he said politely, and she suddenly couldn't bear the thought of him leaving with only these few words exchanged between them.

"We could get coffee?" She suggested, nodding down towards her own coffee, which had been placed on the counter.

"That'll be $3.45," an irritated tone came from the server. James smiled, heart swelling at the notion of a second chance with this mysterious blonde. He reached for his wallet, being the gentleman his uncle taught him to be. _"Never let the lady pay!" _ A line which had given him nothing but success since; only now he looked down at two lousy dollars sitting between the leather. He sighed.

Juliet chuckled, grateful that the bang, bang, banging in her head and simmered down considerably. "We can go dutch," she said, opening her purse.

James ordered his own coffee, then grabbed hers and made way to some empty seats by the window. Juliet had just started to follow him when something in her head seemed to snap, and nothing but the excruciating thunder seemed real. She squeezed her eyes shut, her hand shooting up to hold the bridge of her nose.

"I'll be two seconds I'm just gonna go to the bathroom," she said, not waiting to see if he'd heard her, and rushed towards the door without looking back.

The click of the lock was the last thing she heard before –

-

"Juliet? It's me," James was looking down, into her eyes with nothing but pain in his. She looked at him with a slight confusion. They were just in a coffee shop, she was sure. Her mind was playing tricks on her ... her body was slowly but surely malfunctioning, and Juliet found herself suddenly content with dying in his arms. If coffee with James was where she would end up, then dying wouldn't perhaps be the depressing of things.

"James?" She said, just needing to say his name out loud. The tears in his eyes are thick, and he can barely chock out the word "Yes."

"Kiss me," she pleads with her eyes, knowing if she's about to die then his lips ought to be the last thing she feels.

"You got it, Blondie,"

-

The pain is still there, but very suddenly not quite as bad as before. Juliet looks up into the mirror of the small toilet. Her face is clammy and pale, and she finds herself gripping the sides of the miniature sink in front of her, breathing heavily. _What the hell was that?! _She thought, looking up at her reflection, when –

-

It worked. Juliet looked into his eyes as James pulled his lips apart from hers. It worked, she was definitely in a toilet then ... the toilet of a coffee shop. She'd just met James for the first time ... she was going to visit Rachel in a few days ... she worked at St Sebastian's Hospital in L.A.

"I have to tell you something ... it's really, really important," she says,

"You tell me," are his words.

-

"It worked," she says out loud, staring at her reflection. "Son of a bitch ... it actually worked," she says again, amazed and confused. She spoke to nothing but her own face in the mirror, and let out a shaky laugh before brushing her hair out of her clammy face when a sudden thought occurs to her ... _what happens if he hasn't remembered?_

**Review if you liked it, or have any pointers for me :)**


	3. Chapter Two

**A/N:** Hye guys! Hope you like this next chpater ... I stuggled a bit with it but I do have a clear idea of where I want this story to go so I hope you can stick with me :) Review if you like it!!

James twiddled with his thumbs while he waited for the blonde with no name to return. His heart very nearly stopped when she finally did, and as brilliant as her poker face was, he somehow knew the smile she was wearing was nothing if fake.

"Are you okay?" He asked, uncertainly.

Juliet stared down at him, praying her expression was unreadable because inside her heart was shattering ... slowly, piece by piece and the pain was utterly consuming. He didn't remember ... did that mean she was crazy? Clearly, James had absolutely no idea what had just happened to her ... and now she thought about it, neither did she. She had been struck with the world's worst headache, and when it had finally subsided, she could very clearly remember two lives. It worked, only setting off the nuclear bomb seemed like the absolute worst thing she could have done. It couldn't have gone off, surely? If it had she'd definitely be dead.

_But I AM dead,_ she thought ... perhaps this was heaven; or hell. Right now she couldn't work out which. Heaven because she could very vividly remember the daily phone conversations she had had with Rachel, heaven because she was going to see Rachel and little Julian in just a few days, heaven because, despite knowing it had only been hours since last hearing her sister's voice, Juliet could now feel the separation of six years between them.

Hell because here she was, staring down at the man she hopelessly in love with, and to him, she was a complete stranger. Hell because she now had three years worth of memories and reasons of exactly why she loved him, and couldn't do one damn thing about it. Hell because, even though she knew he was the exact same man (because she was the exact same woman), part of her felt like even if anything with this James _did _happen, she would be cheating on the other James.

"Hey, Blondie?" He said, looking utterly perplexed and waved his hand slightly in front of her eyes.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry ... I was off in a bit of a daze there ... yes, thank you, I'm fine now ... I, erm, I have migraine attacks sometimes ..." she lied, taking the seat opposite him.

"Oh ... that's too bad. We can do this another time if you ain't feelin' well?" he suggested, moving as though to leave his chair, which horrified Juliet and she snatched his hand.

"NO!" James looked down at their hands, this Blonde was holding on to him for dear life before pulling away and looking embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me ... but I'm fine. Really."

"Okay ... so, erm, do you have a name or shall I just keep callin' you Blondie?" He asked light-heartedly.

"Juliet," she said, leaning back into her chair as so to look more relaxed. "And yours?" She waited for his usual con.

"James," he smiled and Juliet silently thanked the lord for giving her the skills of an unreadable expression. Something wasn't right. He never used his real name.

"J-James?" She questioned, eyebrow raised.

He nodded, opening his mouth to reply when suddenly, "FORD! What the hell-" Miles' voice hit her ears with a bang and Juliet felt the colour drain from her face. This wasn't right. She turned slowly, hoping her ears were deceiving her. They weren't; and Miles sighed slightly upon seeing herself and James together. Nope ... he definitely didn't remember either. "I'm sorry, excuse me," he said looking down at Juliet, who managed a small nod. "You know how long I've been waiting for you? I was right outside, man! All you had to do was come and tell me you were calling it a day!"

"My bad, chow mien, I forgot 'bout you," he said smugly. Miles huffed.

"I can see that much," he turned back to face her and held out his hand, "Miles, I'm James' partner."

"James' partner?" she questioned, feeling anxiety build in her chest, like butterflies, yet she was excited about nothing.

"Yeah, Miles' and I are federal agents," James told her nonchalantly before frowning when he met her eyes. "Are you sure you're okay, Juliet? You look like you've seen a ghost."

No, she wasn't okay. Federal agents? Nope ... something was very wrong, and then it occurred to her that her two lives were actually very different. In this life, in this world, her parents had never gotten a divorce ... Edmund remained her boss a few years back, and though he had tried it on with her more than once, they had never been in any kind of relationship ... let alone married.

"Yh-yeah ... yes, I'm fine really ..." she smiled, knowing that tears were now shining in her eyes. "You know what, actually I'm not okay. This headache is just ..." Juliet stood as James did, a worried look on his face. She gathered her things together after pulling her card our of her purse. "My flight isn't until late ... call me," she said, pushing the card in his hands and then hurrying away from the shop.

James cast a look at Miles', who looked embarrassed. He sighed heavily.

"Well ... erm ... that went well."

-

She was shaking by the time she finally got home. It took little over fifteen minutes, but she felt as though she'd been stuck inside the car for years. Juliet tried to steady her breathing as she poured a sizable glass of rum that had been sitting in her fridge of god knows how long. The liquid ran, hot, down her throat, a feeling which shouldn't be all too familiar. Except it was, because she'd done the exact same thing when watching the freighter blow up ... the tears fell then, and Juliet tried all she could to swallow the ache that had risen in her throat. It didn't work, and she felt her legs give way under her as she let the sobs take over her body. Juliet lent against her kitchen counter, going over and over in her head what was happening to her.

It was a while before she finally calmed down enough to set things straight inside her mind, and after thinking about it constantly, Juliet decided the best way to look at it was to view both her lives as two separate pieces of string ... both just as real as the other, but now suddenly they've been laced together. And then the scientist in her thought about her little theory and Juliet felt a giggle escape from her lips. The bottle of rum was now sitting beside her on the floor, and the prospect of Juliet having two different lives, one of which seemed so ridiculous it just couldn't be true just made her laugh even more. Perhaps being away from Rachel, Miami ... all that was familiar to her was finally going to her head. Maybe a cat scan would be the best thing.

Of course, deep down she knew the scientist in her was very wrong. She wasn't crazy in the slightest. She was probably the only person in the world right now who knew that somewhere out there was a co-exsisting universe where she had died in the arms of the man she loved ...

And then it hit her.

She had died ... "oh my god," she breathed. That's exactly why she remembered. It was because she had died ... _after _hitting the bomb ... which had evidently created this separate string in the first place. At least, that was the only thing which came to mind. The only way to know for sure would be to check each person who had been on the island when she had hit the bomb ... James hadn't died, obviously ... neither had Miles ... or they would have remembered. She thought hard, when suddenly Sayid popped into her mind. He was so close to dying when they had left to help Jack, but she couldn't be sure if he had actually died, having died herself and so finding him was the only thing Juliet could think to do.

The sound of the telephone jumped her, and she looked up at it as though it would tell her who was calling. She let it go to her answering machine. Her voice rung out in her apartment.

"Hi, you've reached Juliet Carlson. I can't take your call right now but leave your name and number and I'll get back to you."

"_Erm ... hi ... it's me,"_ Juliet stood up and walked cautiously towards the phone. _"James, from the coffee shop. Erm ..."_ she smiled slightly because he seemed nervous. _"Anyway, I hope you're feelin' better ... and I'm sorry I'm callin' so soon I just ... wanted to make sure you were okay, is all ... erm ... call me back,"_

She snatched up the phone before he hung up. "James?"

"_Oh ... hey, you're there,"_ he said, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, I'm sorry I was just putting my key through the door when you called," she lied, hoping she wasn't slurring after realising just how much rum she'd consumed. That was probably the exact reason she'd picked up at all. Dutch courage.

"_No worries ... how ya feelin' now?"_

"Better, thank you. I'm so sorry I bailed though ... I feel really rude."

"_It ain't your fault you got sick, Blondie,"_ Juliet smiled at her old nickname. _"So, how long did you say you were in Miami for?"_

"I'm supposed to be going for 2 weeks ... but something's come up and I might come back here after the weekend," she said slowly, thinking of getting a jump start on finding Sayid when an idea shot into her head. "Actually, you might be able to help me ..."

"_Oh yeah? What with?"_

"Well I'm trying to find this guy ... an old friend of mine," she added quickly, "his name's Sayid Jarrah ... he's from Iraq ..."

"_Oh, erm ... okay sure ... when did you last see this guy?"_

"Oh I haven't seen him for ... ages. A friend of mine in Australia called me and said he was on his way to L.A. and I have no idea where I can find him ..."

"_Damn, Blondie ... you got a lotta friends in all parts of the world, don't cha?" _

_Actually, no I really don't ... I'm just lying through my teeth ..._ she thought before laughing nonchalantly. "So you think you could help me?"

"_Tell ya what, I'll look up the Arab if you let me take you to dinner when you get back next week?" _

"It seems we have a deal Sawy- ... erm, James," she coughed, feeling her heart pounding at his silence.

"_Well alright then, I'll call you."_

She sighed with relief. "Sure ... bye, James."

"_Bye Juliet."_

Juliet felt guilty as she hung up. She hadn't lied to James in years ... of course, this was a completely different situation ... one which required _her _to be the con artist. _Well,_ she thought, _it's a good job I learnt from the best._


End file.
